VI SUAL
THINKING
Christiana Wilson BA (Hons) Graphic Design
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‘Visual Thinking’ focuses on extending your visual awareness, individual creative language and understanding of contemporary practice while examining the fertile and complex semiotic and aesthetic nature of word, image and object. You will examine these relationships while engaging with broad and experimental creative processes through a series of workshops, demonstrations, seminars and critiques provided across the courses in the School of Visual Arts: Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration and Visual Communication.
ISUAL 2
HINKING
CONTENTS DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS ................................................. 4 POSTCARD ............................................................................ 12 LETTERS IN THE LANDSCAPE .............................................. 20 WORKSHOPS ........................................................................ 32 EXHIBITION ............................................................................ 40 LECTURES ..............................................................................44
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Distinctive Characters 4
For this task it was a requirement that we worked in a group of two, so I worked with Ayesha. To begin with we had to pick a letter at random along with a size of either 150mm or 300mm. We picked the letter R and the size 150mm. We then had to think of a word beginning with our chosen letter and relate it to the distinctive character we were going to create.
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R
ROPE ROBOT RIDICULOUS ROUND RADIO RADIANCE RAIN/RIPPLE RAINCOAT RABBIT RANKING REVEAL REACT REAL/REALISM RECEIVE REVOKE ROTUND
REBOUND RIGHT RECYCLE RED REEL RELAXED RELIGION REMOVE REPLACE RETYPE RISE RINSE RIPPLE ROAD
ROTATION/ROTATE ROUGH REOYAL/ROYALTY REFLECTION REFINE(D) REJECT RUBY RESIN REEF ROSE ROCK
Above are some of the words that Ayesha and I came up with, some with the help of our fellow peers. Deciding that we wanted to go for a 3D approach rather than a 2D one, we therefore had to pick our word carefully in other to stick to our size specification whilst still creating a visually stimulating piece.
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Documented here are a few ideas that we came up with. The first one depicts the notion of reflection, made using mirrored card (mosaic style). The second one, to the right of the first is a model made of chicken with covered in paper roses to portray the word rose. The third (bottom left shows the word rise, this would’ve either had to be animated or videoed for it to work. Finally the final one portrays the word recycle, however, we felt this portrayal didn’t work well so we did some more digital experimentation.
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Digital Development: Recycling
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These paradigms were created using Adobe Illustrator. The designs were inspired by different types of recyclables. During our crit, Ayesha and I presented these to the group and they picked, the corrugated card as the model that portrays the notion of recycling the best.
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Laser cutting: Creating our Letterform.
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We wanted to stick to the theme of recycling as much as possible when creating our letter, therefore we decided to not purchase the corrugated cardboard but instead reuse old boxes left in the studio. We cut approximately twelve sheets of corrugated card and created an R template using the font Arial Black. We chose that font as it a sans serif font, it’s easy to read and is bold. We then processed our design through the laser cutting software and loaded the sheets in groups of four. Once all the ‘R’s’ were cut, we then stuck them together with PVA and let it dry over night.
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Postcard 12
For this task we continued to work within our group of two. Using our distinctive character we were given the brief of designing a postcard (A6 in size). On one side the image of our letterform and on the other side a brief description of our word.
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Description “Recycling: The act of creating new products through processing used or abandoned materials. For example, recycling newspaper and other paper wastes cannot be used to make high grade paper as it shortens the fibres. However, it can be reprocessed to make cardboard.�
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We decided to go against the brief a little bit and stick with our idea of still being more sustainable. Therefore we went for a simple and basic layout as shown above and sourced the use of fibre board to make our postcard. The R will be cut out and the descriptive words will be engraved into the fibre board. 15
Engraving Again we used the laser cutter to accomplish this. We were both incredibly pleased with the final outcome and finish of the postcard.
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Letters in the Landscape 20
For this task we worked in groups of four. We took a visit down to Poole to capture the vast amount of vernacular letterforms that it had to offer. We had the choice of focusing on abstract letterforms or literal, ‘in your face’ letters. I feel as a group we went for a mixture of both to show more variety within our photographs. I was in a group with Ayesha, Georgia and Maya.
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Editing photographs: Our approach to editing our photographs was rather simple. We didn’t want to overcomplicate the photographs or make them look overly photoshopped. Therefore we stuck to just brightening them when need and adding a bit of hue/saturation when needed. Here is a selection of some of the photographs once they’d been edited:
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Book Layout:
When doing the layout, our main focus was harmony between the images. We looked for similarities between the photographs, in alphabetical order. Due to the binding being French fold, we needed to make sure that we all understood that an image on the left on the computer screen will actually be on the right when we bind the book.
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Book Binding: Perfect Binding The process of perfect binding is an easy method to follow, however it is quite a tedious process. We started off by folding our printed off pages ensuring that the fold was crisp. Now comes the slightly tedious part, we placed the folded pages into a clamp and stippled some glue along what would be the spine of the book. This step is repeated about four to five more times allowing time to set in between. It is then left to dry completely for a couple more hours.
Once the main part of the book was dry, the book is then ready to have a cover fixed over it. The cover of the book also needs to take into account the spine of the book. Once the book has been folded in place it is then glued again with the same glue as the spine and then clamped to ensure it dries in places for four to six hours.
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WORKSHOPS
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Digital Letterpress
LetterMPress is a software that imitates a traditional letterpress but without the messiness. It looks like a mini letterpress on a computer screen, as you can still crank the lever in order for the paper to go through and be digitally printed. I enjoyed this workshop, however I did at first find kerning and leading quite tricky, as some of the blocks were quite large and clunky. 34
LetterMPress gives you the oppor tunity to also use Photoshop to incorporate prints and images. These are some of the prints that I ended up creating. The first two images are obtained from the internet and the final two are my images. The quote used in the final two images is one from Dr. Seuss. Kerning was quite challenging when doing the bigger quote as sometimes the spacing between the letters was way too large or too small so therefore had to be adjusted and redone again.
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Traditional Letterpress
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After my LetterMPress workshop I was looking forward to seeing a real letterpress in action. Although the technique of traditional letterpress is quite outdated, it was still a fun pass time. It also helped me understand the different components of a letterpress, which were also within the digital one, and what their functions are.
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Japanese Book Binding
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Japanese Book Binding is another form of putting a book together. The method is also known as Japanese stab binding. Traditionally done with 4 holes, however we used five holes instead of 4. Once you’ve picked your paper and book cover, fold marks are put on the cover using the fold machine, 1cm from the end. In order to drill holes you will need a template to guide you. Once the holes have been drilled you can then start sewing the book in a set sequence with a needle and thread covered in beeswax. Once done excess thread is cut off and or tied to other loose pieces of thread.
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Exhibition 40
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This was an exhibition held in the Graphic’s Studio on Monday 17th Februar y. “For the Love of Graphics’ was a way for us to present our passion/appreciation for Graphic Design. You could either bring in some of your own work or work by a designer, collectible items etc. I chose to bring in some comic book decoupage heels that I had made. I felt that they portrayed the notion that Graphic Design can be used and integrated with other artistic disciplines.
Poster designed by Charles Rodriguez 42
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LECTURES Throughout this term I have attended three lectures. The first one was Transmedia. Transmedia explores the range of media and media practices. It touched onto monomedia as well as adaptations and interpretations such as books into films. The second lecture was on the notion of taste. To summarise, it was about how we as consumers respond to objects and how we give value to things. We also touched on ergonomics and form over function. Through time our tastes also change, for example in the 1950s a real silver fox scarf would’ve been something only aristocrats would wear, seen as an item of great wealth. However, now due to the changing tastes it is very much affordable to working class people. The final lecture was on propaganda. We went through the different types of propaganda, black, grey and white. We also spoke about politics and the government as whenever there is propaganda there isn’t a politician far behind.
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